Could Max Azria Lose Control Of His Name?

DESIGNER Max Azria may lose control of his eponymous label to the financial-services firm that owns his company debt. Guggenheim Partners LLC holds about $475 million of the company's roughly $685 million in debt, The Wall Street Journal reports today, and is seeking a controlling equity interest in the brand.

Azria, who is best known in Europe as the man who bought (and still helms) the Hervé Léger label in 1998, now finds himself in the same position as Léger; who described losing his brand for much less than it was worth as "horrible". Other designers - including Roland Mouret, John Galliano, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, Jil Sander and Danielle Issa - have lost the rights to use their name to their controlling companies in recent years, with many of them speaking of the pain it caused them.

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Azria's financial woes have been blamed on his 25-year-old label's rapid and prolonged expansion - he still operates almost 1,000 locations worldwide - as well as the high spec with which his stores were designed; all paid for with borrowed capital.

"We have our agenda, but the finance people have their agenda," he told The Wall Street Journal. "I knew that, but I didn't see it."

The brand will still present during New York Fashion Week in September, taking his bow alongside his wife Lubov, pictured.